Please join WITA on November 14th for an online panel discussion on the importance of USMCA to North American competitiveness, including in relation to great power competition with China. Speakers will discuss the agreement’s geopolitical significance, its evolution as a trade agreement, and the challenges and opportunities it presents amid growing great power competition.
Featured Speakers:
Emily Kilcrease, Senior Fellow and Director of the Energy, Economics, and Security Program, Center for a New American Security; former Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Investment, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Inu Manak, Senior Fellow for International Trade, Council on Foreign Relations
Derek Scissors, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute; Chief Economist, China Beige Book; former member, US-China Economic and Security Review Commission
Moderator: Arun Venkataraman, Partner, Covington; former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service
Speaker Biographies
Emily Kilcrease, Senior Fellow and Director of the Energy, Economics, and Security Program, Center for a New American Security; former Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Investment
Emily Kilcrease is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Her research focuses on the U.S.-China economic relationship; alignment of national security objectives and economic policy; and geoeconomic statecraft.
Kilcrease previously served as a Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), overseeing the development, negotiation, and coordination of U.S. foreign investment policy. She served as the senior career staffer leading USTR’s work on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and coordinated USTR’s policy engagement on related national security and economic tools, including export controls and supply chain risk management. She played a lead role in drafting CFIUS reform regulations, with a focus on transactions involving critical technology and sensitive personal data. She was involved in the negotiation and enforcement of the Phase One Agreement with China, trilateral work with the EU and Japan to counter unfair Chinese trade practices, and the initial negotiations for a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom.
Previously, Kilcrease served on the National Security Council (NSC) as a director for international trade, investment, and development. She focused on reforming U.S. development finance authorities and launched the interagency effort that resulted in the BUILD Act, as well as coordinating policy on women’s economic empowerment. Prior to the NSC, she served at the Department of Commerce overseeing the department’s CFIUS work. She began her government service at the Department of Interior working on trade and environment policy.
Kilcrease’s commentary has been cited by major national press outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Reuters, NPR, and ABC News. She has testified on coercive economic statecraft before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
Kilcrease received her MA in international relations, with a concentration in international development and economics, from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She received her BA in government from Georgetown University.
Inu Manak, Senior Fellow for International Trade, Council on Foreign Relations
Inu Manak is a senior fellow for international trade at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert in international political economy, Dr. Manak’s research focuses on U.S. trade policy and the law and politics of the World Trade Organization. At CFR, she researches and writes on trade politics and institutions, dispute settlement, and development. She is regularly called on to speak about the USMCA, WTO reform, subsidies and industrial policy, the intersection of trade and climate, and executive overreach on trade. In 2021, she published The Development Dimension: Special and Differential Treatment in Trade (Routledge Focus) with James Bacchus. She is currently writing a book about U.S. trade policy’s bipartisan shift toward protectionism.
Previously, Dr. Manak was a research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies and a junior visiting fellow at the Centre for Trade and Economic Integration at the Graduate Institute in Geneva.
Dr. Manak is a book review editor for World Trade Review and associate editor of the International Economic Law and Policy Blog. She is also a participating scholar in the Robert A. Pastor North America Research Initiative at American University. She serves on the advisory board of the Center on Inclusive Trade and Development at Georgetown Law.
Dr. Manak received a PhD in government from Georgetown University, an MA in international affairs from American University’s School of International Service, and a BA in political science (First Class Honors) from Simon Fraser University.
Derek Scissors, Resident Scholar & Asia Economist, American Enterprise Institute; Chief Economist, China Beige Book International
Derek Scissors is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on the Chinese and Indian economies and on US economic relations with Asia. He is concurrently the Chief Economist of the China Beige Book.
Derek is the author of the China Global Investment Tracker. Since 2008, in a series of papers, he has been chronicling the end of pro-market reforms in China and the resulting slide toward economic stagnation. He has also written multiple papers on the best course for Indian economic development.
Before joining AEI, Derek was a Senior Research Fellow in the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation and an adjunct professor of economics at George Washington University. He has worked for London-based Intelligence Research Ltd., taught economics at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, and served as an action officer in international economics and energy for the US Department of Defense. He also served as a commissioner on the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
Derek has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree from the University of Chicago, and a doctorate from Stanford University.
Arun Venkataraman, Partner, Covington & Burling LLP; former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service
Arun Venkataraman leverages 20 plus years of government and private sector experience to provide legal, policy, and strategic advice to clients on a range of international trade matters.
Arun joined the firm after serving in senior roles at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Most recently, he served as the Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service at the International Trade Administration (ITA) from 2022-2025. Arun led the federal government’s efforts to expand commercial opportunities for U.S. firms overseas and foreign firms in the United States, including by facilitating deals between U.S. and foreign companies, improving commercial policy environments, resolving barriers to trade and investment, and negotiating governmental agreements to promote commercial partnerships. He also served as Counselor to the Secretary of Commerce, advising the Secretary on all aspects of foreign economic policy within the Department. In this role, Arun led negotiations with foreign governments on technology policy, as well as Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs.
Before joining the Biden Administration, Arun was Senior Director, Global Government Engagement, at Visa. He developed and executed engagement strategy, in advocacy before the U.S. and foreign governments, as well as with trade associations, international organizations, and other stakeholder groups on a range of international policy issues including digital economy, trade, tax, and sanctions.
During the Obama Administration, Arun served as ITA’s first-ever Director of Policy, where he led efforts across the Commerce Department to remove global trade and investment barriers and strengthen the global competitiveness of U.S. industry, including in such markets as China and India. This included leading Department efforts to support Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, pass Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation, and secure improvements in China’s competition law and semiconductor policies.
Arun also served in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) as the Director for India, where he led the development and implementation of U.S.-India trade policy, for which he received the agency’s Kelly Award for outstanding performance and extraordinary leadership. He also served as USTR’s Associate General Counsel, representing the United States in litigation before the World Trade Organization (WTO) and in bilateral and multilateral negotiations on international trade agreements.
Prior to USTR, Arun was a Legal Officer in the Appellate Body Secretariat at the WTO, where he advised on appeals in litigation between countries under WTO rules. He also served as a Law Clerk for Judge Jane A. Restani at the U.S. Court of International Trade.
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